Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Davidson Day's record setting junior quarterback Will Grier will play college football at Florida.

Grier, 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, was named the Gatorade N.C. high school football player of the year and was named the quarterback of the N.C. Associated Press all-state football team.

As a sophomore, he completed 250-of-398 passes for 3,785 yards and 49 touchdowns while rushing 97 times for 925 yards and 11 scores.

Last season, he completed 324-of-414 passes for a N.C. record 5,785 yards and a N.C. record 69 touchdowns. He rushed 95 times for 813 yards and eight touchdowns.

He sat national records with 837 yards and 10 touchdowns in a playoff game and led Davidson Day to its second straight state championship.

Two weeks ago, Grier attended a Florida practice an team banquet and his father said it became obvious to the junior quarterback that he wanted to go to Gainesville. Grier will graduate from Davidson Day in December 2013 and enroll at Florida in January 2014, allowing to participate in off-season workouts prior to the start of the 2014 season.

"Will is blessed to have this opportunity and feels so strongly about it that he is ready to commit now so he can focus on his schoolwork, improving his game and helping his team prepare for a third consecutive state championship next year," Grier's father and coach, Chad said. "He has been humbled by the amount of attention he has received from colleges across the country and is very appreciative of the relationships he has established with several coaches. Will is a fierce competitor and he is excited about the opportunity to help Florida win national championships."

Grier announced his five finalists last month, listing Florida as the leader followed by -- in the order he listed them -- UNC, Tennessee, N.C. State and Oregon.

Chad Grier said his son's relationship with the Florida coaching staff was a large part of the decision.

"Will is extremely comfortable with (head) coach (Will) Muschamp and (assistant) coach (Brent) Pease, both of whom made him feel as if he will be a big part of the Gators future," Chad Grier said. "(Will) has had great visits to Florida and has been most impressed by the academic reputation, the strength and conditioning staff, the culture of the program, the level of competition both within the program and within the SEC, and the projected 2013 recruiting class. I spoke with Coach Muschamp and Coach Pease yesterday and I am very proud that Will is going to play for men who care about him as a young man and who believe in him as a player."

Grier will participate in the Under Armour Combine in St Petersburg, Fla Jan 4 and will attend the 58th annual Columbus, Ohio Touchdown Club Awards Banquet in February.

He plans to play baseball for Davidson Day and will attend the Manning QB Academy and the Elite 11 QB camp, his father said.

Why didn't he pick UNCC? Florida will always be no better than 2nd or 3rd in the SEC while Sabin is at Alabama. This kid had a great year, no doubt. However, it's not like he played against Indy or Butler. Let's not talk NFL yet, Chris Leak didn't to well. Just sayin'

Poor kid will be bench warming for his entire career at UF. Big UNC fan, but really thought he would pick UT to play and get the experience of the SEC. UF has yet to produce a high quality QB and all have never lived up to the hype at the next level - even under Spurrier and The Traitor.

To the doubters i encourage you to save this article and your comments for future reference. I don't care if he played powder puff football…he is the real deal and i promise that in the very near future you will regret 2 things

1-posting stupid comments like he will ride the pine in college

2-that you never got out to see him play in person when you had the chance

He is a very special talent that does not come around often. The kind that college coaches want to win national championships. You should refrain from making comparisons to those that have come before him because there are very few worthy of a comparison and the haters that follow these stories around have never mentioned any of them…because you don't know.He will not ride the pine for anyone. He's the kind of kid the coach builds a team around. That's a guarantee.

In all seriousness, the kids only a jr. After watching him in clips and live he's got potential to do some good things. He's 6'3, 190, can run and has a pretty big arm. Darn good combo. I'll give him a chance. Always nice to see local kid do well.

He did get beat by legit teams though. He's gonna have to win those games next year...had to say it

Happy for the kid and I hope he rules in Florida. But that is not an NC record. That is a private school record....it is not recognized. The recognized records are from the NCHSAA and he (or they) have chosen to forego playing the Butler/Independence/Richmond's of the world. Unfortunate.

Why would a small private school in the second year of existence schedule Richmond County? What sense does that make? Why is that unfortunate. Why doesn't East Lincoln schedule Richmond County or Butler? Oh right,because they are in different classifications. 1 school has 4000 students in grades 9-12 the other has 400.. That's the purpose of classifications. I don't understand the significance when it comes down to an individual. If that's so important then why hasn't every starting quarterback at 4a cms schools received an offer from an sec school? Are the men in charge of these multimillion dollar programs,whose jobs are at stake each year based on their performance dumb?

Unfortunate in that he(or they) have chosen NOT to play for an NCHSAA school and will not play that level of cometition, therefore his "records" will always be questioned as you see on here numerous times. That is unfortunate. Hard to be considered the greatest when you choose not to play for the best and against the best. Maybe you do not see that choice as unfortunate, but I do.If he were ON East Lincoln's team and putting up those numbers, they would stand as state records. Alas, he is not because of said choice.

Why would anyone want to play for East Lincoln? Not only is he getting offers from the top schools in the country, he is getting a much better education at DD, than he would at East Lincoln. Seems to me he made a great choice! He will go to camps with the best QBs in the country, and be evaluated by people that do it for a living. I think I will respect their views on the kid, more than some guy posting on a blog.Good Luck Will! There are people still in this world that pull for kids, not hate on them.

One of the best players in the state and he's bolting to play elsewhere. It's hard for ACC schools to compete with the glamor of UF and the SEC. As long as ACC continues to lose out to other conferences in recruiting, they will never better their situation as the worst of the major conferences (BE excluded)

Congrats kid!! I understand the questions about the kid comp. But at the end of the day the goal is for kids to go to college not play at memorial stadium. People that question the comp of private school need to take hev to this fact.

It's 3 players alone in the Lake Norman area that have committed to SEC schools in the past month. And guess what? They all go to private school.

Football aside these boys are getting a free education. And lets say they all ride the pine. They still got a education in the top college football conference in the world.

Question the dad. Question the school. Question the records. Question future success. Question the competition. Question whatever you feel may be necessary.

Fact - The kid is going D1 and will be getting a free education. No question there!

Fact - The private school's have been hitting homeruns lately with D1 scholarships. Yes, this is now 3 Lake Norman area football players that have committed to SEC schools. Recently, two freshmen at Southlake Christian received scholarship offers and committed to Mississippi State. Add the player from PD that is going to Duke. All private schools. No question there!

Fact - College coaches don't risk their jobs offering scholarships to non-players. These kids have scholarships.

Okay, after watching the full clip; this kid has great footwork and an accurate throw. He wide receivers must average 20+ yards after the catch which help his stats. There is no way Florida offers him a scholorship if they don't think he can play.

Yes, they motivate you to take over s program, build it completely around your kid and then leave it in shambles. Clip and save this and let memknow what the DD program looks like in a couple of years. There are probably 20 QB's int the area that could have done the same thing under the circumstances this coach created for his son. At least there is a blue print for over zealous parents to follow. I am sure there are no other kids at that school that could have taken a snap when they were up 50 on some of the middle school teams they played. Maybe since he already got the son his scholarship he will let someone.else at least play one down at QB.

Will, hopefully your attention isn't being paid to some of the nonsense being stated here. I've watched you come up and have never been anything but impressed at the work ethic, toughness and heart that have always been at the forefront. Yes you have God given talent but it wouldn't equate to anything if the complete package wasn't there. The people that are haters will always be there. Congrats little brother and stay the course and you will be just fine.

At least this guy is no retard Scam Newton on his way to Florida for one semester by a fluke after a laughable 11-11 West Lake HS career with pappy preach at the wheel trying to make a stash while his less than mediocre son begins stealing laptops lying and charged for 3 felonies before kicked out of school but only before caught cheating 3 times and going to a community college for one semester in Texas. And then of course the 200k pay for play at the most crooked Auburn that got him a slot with the worst dump team in the league.

Bottom line either record setting highly intelligent Tim Tebow or Chris Leak should be the QB for the Panthers who both had impeccable stellar careers and have been both dumped on equally.At least Tebow is getting out of NY hellhole being held down and hopefully to Jax to be starter. Its shameful what they did to local home grown Leak where his IHS 109 consecutive wins is the most ever for a public high school.

Anybody who thinks todays showboating clowns goofballs and idiots are the best athletes in America are dead wrong. Most are the worst and not athletic. Quality of play is off 50% from just 20 years ago.These bums today just won the war of attrition.The best athletes never play pro today.

So let's see...what kind of numbers did Radford put up against Davidson Day? And they were the best team in their division. Imagine if he played teams all season that were much worse than Davispdson Day. Not to mention in a offense designed for him to throw it 50 times a game regardless of score, situation, field position or down. Now consider that Radford was not the best QB in Charlotte. So how many more players could have put up similar numbers? Not sure, but it is quite a few. You confuse hate with logic.

And anyone that thinks any any stater should be on the field just to pursue statistics at the expense of developing other players, should never even consider coaching anything.

Averaged 35 throws per game asshole. 42 attempts was the high for the season. he sat out half of 3 games. You said it,they have an offense designed around one of the most gifted passers this area has ever seen. What are they supposed to do,run the ball every time? I'm a CD graduate and you are a CD student. I have read your silly posts on other sights as well. Get over it.

^^^^what an idiot. Radford was an example because he actually played that sorry DD defense. How about Rueban Gap genius? 62-7. Anyone else throw a pass in that game besides Grier? Listen. The dad got exactly what he wanted, but quit pretending that the entire thing was not orchestrated. Seeing how sensitive you are only proves my point.

Newton fined for assaulting and threatening an NFL ref. He should have been ejected and suspended. Never look at a ref wrong much less make physical contact with cameras on. What a blunderous mistake this TE was.Def not a leader.

This is getting worse as was expected. Richardson better be getting rid of this BUM sooner than later. He is on the top of the hit list now of players refs and front office.

No player has assaulted an NFL ref in at least 20 years like this. Bad news.

Nobody cares about your point. Nobody cares about your analysis. Nobody cares about you. You have no logic. You have no education. You have no life. A kid is going to a national power for free. Congratulations is all you need to say.